Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Is Black Mountain Camp Attacking?
The "immortelle" flowers, planted by the little girl Taotao, bloomed in a riot of color in the courtyard.
"Yellow flower," Tang Wen said.
"CAW!"
The Blood Crow pecked down, its sharp beak neatly severing the yellow flower.
"White flower."
"CAW!"
Correct again.
[Beast Taming Skill, Beginner (979 → 987/1000)]
His Experience Points took a small jump after the crow learned to identify the series of red, yellow, green, and blue flowers.
Seven days had passed since Tang Wen acquired the two Exotic Beast Donkeys.
The ice cellar at his home was now three levels deep and filled to the brim.
Thanks to his deliberate efforts, over ten thousand pounds of that meat came from the wild horses of the wasteland.
Now, you’d be lucky to find a single horse hair on the wasteland.
Training the Blood Crow to identify flowers was no longer useful.
Tang Wen decided to up the difficulty for the Blood Crow. He took out a book used in the camp for children’s basic education—Childhood Arithmetic.
He had cards made of Kraft Paper, with simple equations like "3+2" and "3+1" written on them in charcoal.
He wasn’t training university graduates, after all, who would be unemployed the moment they finished.
Learning addition and subtraction would be enough.
From their home in the camp to the southern wasteland, a warhorse and two donkeys trotted along with light, clip-clopping steps.
Sitting on his horse, Tang Wen tirelessly tried to get the Blood Crow to memorize numbers over and over.
Finally, just before the wasteland spring came into view, the Blood Crow correctly arranged the numbers one through ten three times in a row.
[Beast Taming Skill, Beginner → Master (0/3000)]
Suddenly, Tang Wen felt something was different.
He reached out and stroked the Blood Crow’s small head.
"CAW CAW!"
The cry didn’t sound any different.
But Tang Wen could tell it was getting restless. ’Does it want to eat some bugs?’
"Go on, that’s enough learning for today."
The Blood Crow’s eyes visibly lit up with excitement. With a flap of its wings, it soared into the sky, off to find bugs somewhere.
"NEIGH!" the warhorse whinnied.
’Hmm, it’s thirsty.’
Tang Wen patted the horse’s neck. "Just hold on a little longer."
The horse snorted. It was still thirsty.
It wasn’t comforted in the slightest.
After a moment of thought, Tang Wen suddenly pointed into the dusty distance. "Look, a plum grove over there!"
"NEIGH!"
The warhorse grew impatient.
Clearly, the trick of "gazing at plums to quench thirst" didn’t work on horses.
"Alright! Giddyap!"
He spurred the horse onward, quickly reaching the pool where the spring water collected.
Only a shallow puddle of muddy water remained.
Tang Wen climbed to a higher spot and scooped clear water from the spring’s source.
He watered the warhorse and the two donkeys.
He was curious about the donkeys’ emotions.
However, after riding one for a while to try and sense its feelings, he detected nothing.
It was as if they had no emotions, no complaints about the arduous work of trekking through mountains and rivers.
Tang Wen took out some dried meat and, chewing idly, summarized his thoughts on the Blood Crow, the warhorse, and the donkeys.
The three had vastly different personalities.
The Blood Crow was like a teenager from his past life—carefree, happy, and living in the moment.
The warhorse was like a young adult just entering the workforce—it had taken a few hits but still had a defiant spirit.
The donkeys were middle-aged, with elders to support and children to raise, burdened by mortgages, car loans, and credit card debt... They had no choice but to keep grinding away, just to earn a few pounds of hay.
The Blood Crow searched for prey.
The horse dozed on its feet, while the donkeys silently munched on shrubs.
Tang Wen wasn’t idle either. Even in the wilderness, he had to keep up his Martial Arts Training.
He walked up to a grayish-brown cliff face and silently put on a pair of gray gloves.
The gloves were made from the soft yet tough skin of an Earth Beast’s belly.
They protected his hands without affecting his Power Burst.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Tang Wen began to pound the mountain.
His fists were like heavy cannons.
His kicks were like steel whips.
Elbow strikes and knee thrusts created a continuous series of sonic booms.
After a few consecutive bursts of power, Tang Wen walked into the stone wall.
To be precise, he had punched a cave into the mountainside.
After clearing the rubble from the cave, he looked at it with satisfaction. "Why didn’t I think of this before? With all the sand and dust outside, I should have dug a cave to rest in long ago."
The Blood Crow still hadn’t returned.
Inside the cave, Tang Wen laid down a waterproof cloth and began practicing the Earth-Fire Primordial Pile Technique.
The tempering effects of this fused and improved Cultivation Technique were truly immediate.
If he were at home, he would practice this alone in secret.
It wasn’t because he was afraid of others stealing his technique.
The main reason was that as he practiced, certain... unseemly changes would occur.
Changes so startling that even the most experienced courtesans of the Inner City Yihong Tower would be shocked to see them!
But the most wonderful part was that by coordinating it with the Breathing Technique and Meditation Method, the changes were just barely kept under control.
The pleasure of growing stronger was simply addictive.
"CAW! CAW! CAW!"
The Blood Crow flew back, cawing up a storm and pointing at the warhorse with its left wing.
Tang Wen was pleasantly surprised. "A black horse? You saw a black horse? The one that’s all black with just a little bit of white?"
Tang Wen thought of the majestic bearing of that High-level Exotic Beast, Wuyun Ta Xue!
People always said, "Diao Chan among women, Red Hare among horses."
This Wuyun Ta Xue was definitely more impressive than Red Hare.
Riding it would surely turn more heads than driving a Ferrari one-handed.
He had made plenty of preparations for this.
He pulled a bottle of medicinal powder from his bag, mixed it with beans, minced meat, and green salt, and presented it to his warhorse.
The horse snorted excitedly and, under Tang Wen’s smiling gaze, devoured the entire meal.
After a short rest, Tang Wen mounted his horse and set off.
Two hours later, he felt his warhorse breathing abnormally hard, its body temperature gradually rising.
He nodded to himself. ’Elder Ya really is something. This female beast aphrodisiac works like a charm.’
The drug was taking effect.
The Blood Crow let out a low cry, reminding Tang Wen that the black horse was nearby.
Tang Wen thought for a moment and decided not to head straight for the black horse.
He checked the wind direction, then rode his little mare in a wide circle, CLIP-CLOP-CLIP, until he was upwind.
Then, he tied the mare to some bushes and removed her saddle.
As for himself, he hid behind a rock.
Before long, the mare, having been fed the aphrodisiac, began to shift her hooves restlessly and cry out.
Listening to her, Tang Wen thought it wasn’t a whinny at all. She was practically yelling, "Hey there, big boy! Come and get it!"
THUD THUD THUD!
The sound of hooves was crisp.
"Here it comes!" Tang Wen smiled confidently. ’The beautiful horse gambit worked.’
He peeked out to look, and the smile suddenly froze on his face.
The approaching horse was a black filly, her coat a glossy black except for a patch of heart-shaped white fur on her chest.
This wasn’t the Wuyun Ta Xue he was looking for!
Judging by its aura, it was a Middle-level Exotic Beast.
And, most importantly, it was a mare!
It had probably come looking for his warhorse to drive this "hussy" out of its territory.
"A classic case of batting your eyes at a blind man. Still, not a complete waste."
Tang Wen used Visualization to channel his power. Kicking up sand and gravel, he shot toward the black horse like a plume of wolf smoke.
The black horse shrieked in alarm and turned to flee, but it felt a sudden weight on its back—someone had mounted it.
Horses will never be slaves.
It reared up on its hind legs, its body nearly perpendicular to the ground, trying to throw Tang Wen off.
"CRACK!" Tang Wen gave it a lash of the whip.
The black horse, stung by the pain, dropped to the ground and tried to roll over to crush him beneath it.
Tang Wen leaped to the ground and mercilessly struck it ten times with the whip, leaving it barely able to stand.
As a Middle-level Exotic Beast, even though it was a mare, the black horse had a fiery temperament.
It got up and fled.
But Tang Wen appeared on its back once again.
And so it went, a cycle of taming and fleeing.
The two of them left the area, galloping into the distance, from day until night.
The Middle-level Exotic Beast, the black horse, was utterly exhausted.
Tang Wen offered it a bean cake, but its eyes glinted fiercely as it opened its mouth to bite.
CRACK!
Another lash.
He offered again. It still tried to bite.
Another lash!
He offered again. It still tried to bite!
SHIIING.
Tang Wen lost his patience. He drew the long saber from his back. In the moonlight, the blade glinted with a cold, murderous aura.
The black horse obediently sidled closer, licked his palm, and used its tongue to scoop up the bean cake and began to chew.
"That’s more like it."
[Beast Taming Skill, Master (0 → 1317/3000)]
He had acquired a Middle-level Exotic Beast as a mount and gained experience.
Tang Wen won twice. A win-win!
The black horse was a Middle-level Exotic Beast, after all. After eating the bean cake and resting briefly, it galloped off with Tang Wen on its back.
Its speed was far greater than his warhorse’s.
"Not bad. From now on, your name is Wuzhu. When I catch that black stallion, I’ll name him Ta Xue."
Before long, the man and his horse returned to their original spot.
As they drew near, they heard the abnormally cheerful cries of a horse.
A strange expression crossed Tang Wen’s face. His warhorse and that black stallion, Ta Xue, were shamelessly going at it!
The stallion, Ta Xue, was decisive. It immediately stopped what it was doing and galloped away.
It left the warhorse standing there in a daze.
"Scum-stallion! An absolute scum-stallion!"
It ran like the wind, and Tang Wen, exhausted from the night’s ordeal, had no intention of giving chase.
Ta Xue was a High-level Exotic Beast. Taming it as a mount without injuring it wouldn’t be something he could accomplish overnight.
However, he had basically killed off all the other wild horses in this wasteland.
Ta Xue would have no choice but to remain a bachelor!
A scarce resource like mares was now entirely in Tang Wen’s hands.
Tang Wen wasn’t worried in the slightest. The day would come when it would submit!
Three days later, with his new mount, Tang Wen headed back to the hunting outpost, carrying several hunted animals and three to four thousand pounds of meat.
"The sun sets west, the red clouds fly..."
He ate his dried meat, hummed a song, and occasionally took a sip of spring water.
Suddenly, in the distance, a huge crowd of people clad in Beast Skins and armed with Bow and Arrows and spears surged toward the hunting outpost!
A quick count revealed at least a hundred of them.
They moved extremely fast, clearly possessing martial skills.
The dried meat in Tang Wen’s hand suddenly lost its flavor.
’Is the Black Mountain Camp attacking? But that gear doesn’t look like theirs!’
